'One Tree Hill' will end next year

It wasn’t entirely unexpected, but CW topper Dawn Ostroff told advertisers today in New York that One Tree Hill will return to the network’s midseason lineup next year for its final 13 episodes. It will be the drama’s ninth (!!!) season.

Miraculously, the long-running series was given the greenlight for another year – a pretty remarkable feat, since the drama has set some sort of record for having been a bubble show every season for the past eight years.

The CW will attempt to lure Chad Michael Murray (Lucas) and Hilarie Burton (Peyton), both of whom left in 2009, back for the show’s final episodes.